Menu

Dropbox, Google Disk и Soft Links for folder syncronization on Windows

There is a need to do something with data synchronization on different PCs. Moreover, store all in one place - is not interested.

All who worked on Linux should know about hard and symbolic links, to create multiple entry points into the same folder/file. But not all know what there are also in the Window. May be, because, such "happiness" as a symbolic link to the directory (or NTFS Junction Point) implemented only in Windows 2000 (according to wikipedia).

Note: The hard link then immediately was omitted, because it can be arranged only on the file.

If you walk across expanses of the Internet, the decision is not hard to find. But all these solutions are presented in the form of "do like this" with sequence of actions. And no more comments. But I didn’t want "like this", so I started trying to do this in different ways. 

Generally, I want to put links in sync folder instead of directories. And with that there is a problem.

As a result - it can be done. But it is not working as I suspect (or as I want). Create two links on different PCs, that Dropbox and Google Disk will be treated as a single directory, it's not easy, but possible. Programs constantly think that they are different directories and try to synchronize them incomprehensible actions (for example, remove link on the server and upload new or create additional folder with a different name). But after that, I got new problem - the program almost didn’t see the changes in these directories.

Looking from outside, it seems that programs such as Dropbox and Google Disk determine occurrence of changes by changes of date (or time) of the parent (or root at all) folder. The same behavior can be seen in other applications, such as IDE and others.

But if will do by "do it like this" :) - that everything is synchronized and well-observed.


And, just in case, an example of how I did it on Windows 7 Corporate:

On the D: create folder Storage (e.g. D:\Storage) -- is will be common storage.

After, install Dropbox and Google Disk, with folders for syncronization like as: D:\Storage\Dropbox and D:\Storage\GoogleDisk

And finally – creating links:

Run command promt with admin rights (owerwise, system doesn't allow us to create links) and type like:

mklink /D D:\Folder1 D:\Storage\Dropbox\Folder1

mklink /D E:\Folder2 D:\Storage\Dropbox\Folder2

mklink /D F:\Folder3 D:\Storage\GoogleDisk\Folder3

mklink /D C:\Users\UserName\Documents\CommonDoc D:\Storage\GoogleDisk\Folder4

It is worth noting that at first we type path to the "folder" that we want to create as a reference. And after then, place where the link will refer to. Therefore, after this sequence, we will have symbolic links on the basis of the folders in D:\Folder1, E:\Folder2, F:\Folder3, C:\Users\UserName\Documents\CommonDoc

If you open the "favorite" Explorer, these folders are displayed with an arrow in the corner, as all other "links".


For a snack: If you’re new to Dropbox, or the whole cloud storage thing in general, then "How to Share Files on Dropbox – The Ultimate Beginner's Guide" should be helpful for you.


Have a good day. :)

Tags:
dropbox, googledrive, ntfs, hardlinks, softlinks, system

Keep your comment...